“pumpkin”
34 recipes vs 162Recipes with “pumpkin” in the title: less egg (9.6% vs 28%).
“pumpkin” (34)the rest (162)middle half of all
Eggrecipes with pumpkin in the title 9.6% vs the rest 28%
Snickerdoodles Lab
Snickerdoodles: what 215 recipes agree on
The cinnamon-sugar cookie: butter, sugar, egg and the cream of tartar that makes it tangy.
215 recipes from 90 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
215
from 90 sites
Typical flour
340 g
about 2 3/4 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 193
Bake time
11 min
most 9 to 12 min
The typical batch of snickerdoodles
The median of all 215 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 340 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 340 gabout 2 3/4 cups |
| FatMost recipes use 195 to 225 g | 215 gabout 1 cup |
| SugarMost recipes use 270 to 350 g | 305 gabout 1 1/2 cups |
| EggMost recipes use 60 to 100 g | 90 gabout 2 large eggs |
| Cream of tartarMost recipes use 1.5 to 6 g | 4 g |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 5 to 6 g | 6 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 1.5 to 3.5 g | 2.5 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 11 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Fat
median 63% · most 57 to 66%
Butter, sometimes with shortening, which keeps the cookie thick and soft rather than flat and crisp.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 31 to 94%
Sugar
median 90% · most 80 to 103%
Mostly granulated sugar in the dough, before the cinnamon-sugar coating that is not counted here.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 53 to 175%
Egg
median 27% · most 18 to 29%
Egg keeps the middle soft and chewy.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 0 to 40% · 7% use none
Cream of tartar
median 1.2% · most 0.5 to 1.7%
Cream of tartar is the acid that reacts with baking soda and gives the snickerdoodle its slight tang and pillowy crackle.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 0 to 3.1% · 20% use none
Leavening
median 1.7% · most 1.4 to 1.9%
Usually baking soda paired with cream of tartar; recipes without the tartar use baking powder instead.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 0.3 to 4.3%
Salt
median 0.8% · most 0.4 to 1.1%
Salt balances the sugar coating.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 2.2% · 4% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Cream of tartar. The middle half of recipes use 0.5 to 1.7% of the flour weight in cream of tartar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 3.8 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 0.4 to 1.1% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.8 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on fat and sugar: fat 57 to 66%, sugar 80 to 103% for the middle half.
Around the world
206 of the recipes come in 2 languages with enough of each to compare: English 196, German 10.
- Most German recipes use no cream of tartar (100%, against 14% of English recipes).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “soft” (14) or “best” (11) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
“brown butter”
18 recipes vs 178Recipes with “brown butter” in the title: more cream of tartar (1.8% vs 1.4%).
“brown butter” (18)the rest (178)middle half of all
Cream of tartarrecipes with brown butter in the title 1.8% vs the rest 1.4%
The most-reviewed recipes
43 snickerdoodle recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 172, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (43)the rest (172)middle half of all
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 61% vs the rest 63%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 84% vs the rest 92%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 25% vs the rest 27%
Cream of tartarthe most-reviewed recipes 1.4% vs the rest 1.2%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 1.7% vs the rest 1.7%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.8% vs the rest 0.8%
Most reviewed
- The Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe · modernhoney.com5.0 from 1,388 ratings
- Soft & Thick Snickerdoodles · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.7 from 483 ratings
- Snickerdoodles · foodnetwork.com4.5 from 299 ratings
- Snickerdoodle Recipe · preppykitchen.com5.0 from 266 ratings
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles · sugarspunrun.com4.9 from 198 ratings
Oven temperature and time
193 of 215 recipes state an oven temperature, and 53% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 375°F. The other 22 do not say.
- 350°F104 recipes
- 375°F55 recipes
- 400°F27 recipes
- 325°F4 recipes
- 300°F1 recipe
- 330°F1 recipe
211 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 11 minutes and the middle half bake 9 to 12 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes, with 61 of the 190 recipes that state both.
≥400°F 205375°F 190350°F 175≤325°F 1655101520253035
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Snickerdoodles · onceuponachef.comfat 61% · sugar 87%
- Snickerdoodles · sugarhero.comfat 59% · sugar 95%
- The Softest & Chewiest Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.comfat 58% · sugar 87%
- Les snickerdoodles biscuits à la cannelle · mesinspirationsculinaires.comfat 64% · sugar 91%
- Caramel Apple Snickerdoodles · thefirstyearblog.comfat 60% · sugar 79%
Most fat
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies · lifeloveandsugar.comfat 94% · sugar 92%
- Cocoa Snickerdoodles · foodnetwork.comfat 91% · sugar 174%
- Loaded Snickerdoodles · tasteofhome.comfat 91% · sugar 164%
Least fat
- Holiday Eggnog Snickerdoodles · tasteofhome.comfat 31% · sugar 68%
- Peanut Butter Snickerdoodles · iambaker.netfat 33% · sugar 87%
- Snickerdoodle Biscotti · shugarysweets.comfat 34% · sugar 70%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- Title WordsWhat recipes whose titles say fudgy, healthy or small batch do differently from the rest, and which words change nothing.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12baketotheroots.de
- 12iambaker.net
- 9crazyforcrust.com
- 8foodnetwork.com
- 7sallysbakingaddiction.com
- 6modernhoney.com
- 6sugarspunrun.com
- 5delish.com
- 5kingarthurbaking.com
- 5tasteofhome.com
- 5twopeasandtheirpod.com
- 412tomatoes.com
In 5 languages: English 196, German 10, French 5, Dutch 3, Italian 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 90 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
99% of the 2,249 ingredient lines got a weight. 20% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 58 were left out: 22 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 14 with a title that names a different dish, 12 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (fat 7, sugar 2, egg 2, leavening 1), 8 duplicates of other pages, and 2 made from a boxed mix.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.